Method of preparing food materials for use.



UNITED siresrns PATENT iremen,

WILLIAM ERAsTUs WILLIAMS, OF CHICAGO, lLLlXOlbT.

METHOD OF PREPARING FOOD MATERIALS FOR USE.

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed July 21, 1905. Serial No. 270,729.

Patented Aug. 25, 1908.

Use, of'which the following isa specification.

The object of my invention'is toprovide a method of preparing cereals or the like materials for food in the form of filaments or flakes, that will retain the entire nutritious qualities of the materials and be in alight palatable formlfor food.

, My invention relates .to that class'of foods such as shredded-wheat biscuit, triscuit, and flake foods such as MaltaVitae, Eorcejt and all that class of goods.

Heretofore it has been'the practice with all filamentary I and flake foods, to first boil or;

steam the grain and then treat it by coolin drying and. other methods,- andthen shre dingaorflaking the-grain." The boiling or steaming of the grain roduces considerable chan e 1n the chemica quality of the grain, and't ere escapes from the grain to the water a number of t e nutritious soluble elements, gram wheat for instance that has been boiled and then allowed to becomewell dried becomes slightlytranslucent, very hard, brit-v tle, .and somewhat in ap' earanc'e and be havior like cakes of dry g us, and it is'the'n almost tasteless. The mealy-rich flavor of the raw wheat has disappeared and conse-' uently much of the nutritious value 'has t ereby' either'escaped'to the water or been otherwise lost. some foods to sprout or malt the grain in or der to get the valuable change efiected theretheir value.

malnn' bread out of grain the grain is first.

- leavemng matter in order to make the bread by, such -mal ted grain when boiled or steamed gives over to theliquor its principal nutritious elements and hence the-flakes or filaments then; produced have lost most of In the ordinary methods of groun to flour and then water and seasoning and leavening matter is added, and then it is baked; thus all the water that is put with the grain or flour remains with the bread and only escapes. by evaporation and none of it leaves the flour or bread as a liquor to carry' off the-soluble matter, but that method of makin bread and food stuffs requiresthe light and palatable and the leavening matter is an impurity and it produces a detrimental Again it is desirable for chemical change in the material of the bread or food.

With my mven'tion I am able to produce a palatable light food out of almost any grain or material'that can be worked up into a pasty condition and none of the'soluble materials are allowed to escape.

Ordinarygrains, food vegetables, in their naturallstate in whole form, may be placed in water of not too high a temperature a short ,or considerable time, and then dried.

without appreciable injury or chemical change, but the moment that the whole berry or natural cellular form is brokeneithelxby grinding, crushing or by heat or other me'thods, and it is then subjected to water a change immediately takes place and the original natural chemical condition cannot be restored bydrying and. hence the steps of preparing the food which is to retain the entire natural elements of the grain or vegetable must from the commencement of the first breakin of the cellsprooeed continuously to the nished product without delays,repeating, relay treatments, whicha're' almost 1m ossible to avoid with the cooking process.

' he apparatus I preferto use in the treatment of my grains or materials is composed of a. series. of finely 'ci rcumferentially grooved rollsi' But any suitableshredding flake or material passes through one set of rolls it falls directly to the'neXt and so on, but any other suitable arrangement may be used or the material after 'assing the rolls may be retained until a sma mass shall have accumulated and then be assed through the rolls L again and-so on. I he. rooves of' thelast rolls should be quite sma l and be the rquisite size for the filament. of the finished productj Y I prefer to'p'repare the grain or vegetable in its whole form, by soaking it in water a suflicient time so-that there will be held by absorption on the exterior of the kernels or by the spaces in the mass of kernels or into the body .ofthekernel's themselves a suifi cient amount-[of entrained water to l'produce at the proper stage of reduction tie puddling or pasty. effect desired to produce the filamentary or flaky product. The grain or vegetable material supplied with the requisite amount of moisture as above described,

is then passed through the rolls or shredding Cir a of dried paste as it is from toughness.

I devices, and the el'l'eet of the first break is to cause the surplus or unabsorbed water to spread itself partly in contact with the inte rior portions of they material that are now exposed by the breaking action, the second and subsequent passes continue the same action until the watefcarried by the material at the start is homogeneously mixed with the entire product.

The character of .the material is progressively changed .in repeatedly passing it through rolls in the presence or moisture, the particles of course rubbing upon each other under somewhat high pressure and the moisture being more and more perfectly distributed. through. even the most minute portions oi the material, until it has sufficient tenacityor cohesiveness to-be worked into flakes or filaments although absolutely uncooked. If in this new condition, itbe sini- .ply baked it is light, highly frangible, and as free from the somewhat horn-like appearance The change in the character of the material renders it capable of forming, in finally passing through the rolls, continuous shreds or filaments, while after passingfor the first time through the same or similar rolls it was delivered as'a plartially granular or meal-like mass. The ange occurring is of course the same whether or not the material be finally worked to thread-like form.

The passing of the material through the flakes of a homogeneous character, which are then put into an oven and baked which pro-.

duces a product, which has every-element of the grain with all its flavor without any of the ooarseharshness observable by other meth-- ods of preparation. Instead, of soaking the grainprior to the treatment by the apparatus,

it may be fed dry directly to the apparatus and the water supplied by sprays, drops \or jets, as it goes through the apparatus.

Club wheat such as is used to make flake food can be taken dry and by the nie'tliodlast above mentioned .passed through the grooved" rollers, three times when it will a ear as beautiful hompgeneous shreds, whlc when baked have a c eamy, mealy, delicious flavor,

making a f00 that is palatable when dry,

and it makes up excellently, with creams gravies and all sorts of dishes combined with meats. or other articles. shelled corn with the husk or outer bran coat ing on in its natural state, can be through the rolls'a plurality of times in connection with the proper amount of moisture,

and be made to come out homogeneous beautiful filaments, which when baked, make de- Ordinary ,dry

passed licious corn filaments having the same general properties as above described for wheat, but for .corn .it requires about three times the amount of treatment re uired for the wheat,

Oats and barley dry Wit the hulls on" in the natural state may be passed through the same as the corn, and thereby make a prodnot of homogeneous character made-lupof Y cooked material, in the Lpresence of moisture,

through devices adapte to press it intodistinct masses of slight cross sectional area.

2. The method of; preparing cereals and I the like naturally dry food materials forms which consists in repeatedly passing the natural material in an uncooked state and in the presence of moisture, through devices adapted to press it into masses of slight cross sectional area, and cooking the product.

3. The method of preparing cereals and the-like naturally dry food material. for use which consists in repeatedly assing the rawv material through shredding evices, supplying moisture during the shredding, and

'ing the product. 4. The method c2" preparing naturally dry food materials, such'as cereals, which consists in repeatedly passing the material in its natural raw state and in the presence of moisture, through devices adapted to press it into distinct masses of slight cross-sectional area.

, WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS. Witnesses:

AXEL AKERHOLM,

W. J. DowNEY.

Signed. at Chicago this 14th day of June i 1904., 

